ABSTRACT
This essay aims at outline the theoretical discussions about the financial crises. Three approaches explain the event: the monetarist, the asymmetric information approach and the financial instability hypothesis. The first one proved inadequate when confronted with experience. The other two have in common the attempt to include the financial market with all its institutions in the economic analysis. Nevertheless, they differ in the conception about the operating mode of the economy.
KEYWORDS:
Financial crisis; history of economic thought